Should they stay or should they go?

Now that we have a (new) president again, I’m faced with a bit of a dilemma: should I dump the Trump protest art?

This question comes to mind after the Museum of London announced it’s adding the original Trump Baby balloon to its collection. You might remember London protesters “welcomed” the former president with the mini-blimp in July 2018.

And just in time for that year’s Seattle Art Fair, my husband surprised me with the t-shirt version.

Ordinarily, I hoard — I mean, “collect” — things like this for my collages and assemblage sculptures as part of my practice. And it’s common for some museums to collect protest-related ephemera as material culture. In fact, the Smithsonian Institute recently acquired posters and other stuff left behind by pro-Trump insurrectionists on January 6th. But do I really want to remember this era so clearly?

And as the Trump Baby balloon makers pointed out, “…we’re under no illusions that this is the end of the story.” So what should I do with the hat and the t-shirt? Drop a suggestion on my Facebook or Instagram.

MLK Day: one step forward, two steps back

We’re approaching our first Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday after last summer’s protests of George Floyd’s murder. Can someone tell me where they think Black people in the arts are headed?

On the one hand, look at curator Naomi Beckwith’s career: she’s leaving Chicago for New York, to become the Guggenheim Museum’s new chief curator and deputy director. Starting in June 2021, Beckwith will oversee exhibitions and pretty much everything else the public experiences. Which is fantastic — I hope.

Curator Naomi Beckwith. (Photo credits: Tony Hisgett/ MCA Chicago/Guggenheim Museum NYC)

Yeah, she resigned her position last Friday. (No, I’m not going to name her.) The National Museum of Women in the Arts also dropped her from their advisory board. But she’d already served on the Ohio Arts Council since 2016, so… how many funding opportunities or leadership roles did artists of color miss out on, thanks to her influence?

Photo: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

I know, I know: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I imagine Dr. King is waiting for us at the other end of that arc. Maybe text him that we’re running late.

A funny thing happened on the way to DC

I’m gonna need Inauguration Day to get here sooner rather than later. When I look back at the end of 2020/ beginning of 2021, I don’t want to think of it as the series finale of America. I want to remember this period as a time of career milestones.

I thought debuting “The Home Inside My Head” well after Election Day would keep it from being buried by political news, but nooo… election coverage is still going strong. Fortunately, I also received a fantastic Christmas gift: a positive review of my work in the Washington Post!

So yeah, I was a little sad to close my first solo show at Morton Fine Art— but also relieved, because it ended just before the post-election insurrection at the US Capitol Building.

We’re entering the second week of 2021. Why is 2020 trying to hold on like a piece of toilet paper to a shoe?